A FUTURE FOR THE GLEBE 335 



a moderate distance of that office for threepence. If 

 there is an exchange — that is, if from the post-office 

 a number of short wires radiate to points in the town 

 itself, or thereabout — the renter may speak, without 

 charge, direct to a co-renter. Therefore, it only 

 needs a local hiring of short wires by the professional 

 men and tradesmen of a town (in other words, plenty 

 of town renters) for the rural renter, or the rural 

 ' call ' office, to be in touch with all — with professional 

 men, tradesmen, the post-office, police, and fire 

 brigade. 



That is what these suggestions aim at. Supple- 

 menting a cheap local parcel post and a day mail 

 conveyed by a passenger-car, there should be, not 

 alone in a great town here and there, but in every 

 town, a telephone exchange, and in every village 

 either that or a ' call ' office. 



In 1846, Mr. Punch, with prescient mind, fore- 

 shadowed, in his eleventh volume, some such ar- 

 rangement in these words : 



' Since the electric telegraph is being extended everywhere, we 

 think it might be laid down, like the water and the assessed 

 taxes, to every house. By these means a merchant would be 

 able to correspond with his factors at sea-towns, a lawyer would 

 communicate with his agents in the country, and a doctor would 

 be able to consult with his patients without leaving his fireside.' 



This, and more, is what the telephone alone can 

 easily do. No practicable telegraph could be carried 

 from the doctor's study to the patient's bed, and so 

 enable them to speak mouth to ear ; but with the 



